Thunder and Lightning
by Railgun12
Summary: Thor, Misaka Mikoto, and a whole lot of electricity. This will be fun! Ch 3: The Sisters try to monopolize their oneesama.
1. got your number

It begins with bad jokes.

They're sent to Mikoto via text messages that she suspects are magical in nature, seeing that every one of them is preceded by a slight electromagnetic pulse that has no effect on any electronics nearby. They are, somehow, Thor-flavored to Mikoto's electromaster senses. She didn't even know electromagnetic pulses could have any sort of signature, and she finds this electric anomaly slightly irritating...because she hadn't known about it before.

[Why are electricians always up to date?]

For the very first one, she thinks it's an actual, if nonsensical, question. Her head is spinning as she stares at the little black Japanese characters on her phone's screen. The little electric pulse that had preceded the message [ _tastes_ ] like Thor - like the weird, deep, cold electricity she had felt radiating off the boy in black-and-yellow when she'd run across him. Touma's safety had overridden all other considerations then, but she'd never been able to entirely forget Thor, fleeting though their meeting had been.

Everyone had bioelectricity, but she'd never met anyone who had his own strange...flavor? It wasn't quite that, but it was closer than any other description. Thor was unforgettable, yanking on her electromaster senses in a way no one ever had before, not even Touma and his soothing, infuriating, miracle-making Imagine Breaker, not even the Sisters and their just-like-hers-only- _not_ electro-esper powers.

She had wondered if Thor could taste her electricity too.

Before she can even think about the question he had sent, her phone beeps again, a burst of cold electromagnetism brushes her senses, and Thor has sent the punchline.

[Because they are "Current specialists".] The words "current specialists" are in English.

Mikoto goggles for a moment.

{Thor, I know it's you,} she sends back, in English as fluent as the other's Japanese.

[ ( ＾∇＾) ] is the reply.

* * *

[Why do fluorescent lights hum?]

{You're an idiot.}

[Because they can't remember the words.]

{How did you even get my number?!}

* * *

[A photon checks into a hotel. The bellhop says, "Do you have any luggage?" The photon replies: "Nope, I'm traveling light.]

Maybe it's because they had just been studying physics, but Mikoto actually smiles a little at that one.

* * *

[We're badass,] Thor announces, out of nowhere.

{Yes?} Misaka sends. She hadn't heard from her...penpal? ...in weeks. She had found herself checking her phone compulsively. At the now-familiar coolness brushing across her senses, she had rushed for her green Gekota-phone, grabbing it before the message-tone had sounded, almost fumbling it in her eagerness. She didn't notice, but a wide grin had stamped itself across her features.

[Lightning doesn't strike us. We strike lightning!]

 _We strike lightning!_

The words resound in Mikoto's mind like echoes of thunder.

* * *

[A friend who's in liquor production,  
Has a still of astounding construction,  
The alcohol boils,  
Through old magnet coils,  
He says that it's proof by induction.]

{That's actually pretty clever,} Mikoto sends, laughing quietly as she does. Proof by induction...she'll have to remember that one.

* * *

[Why did the lights go out?]

{how did you even find out about that it wasnt my fault they really should upgrade the electrical grid here} is Mikoto's off-the-cuff reply, sharp-quick in its surprised honesty. How had Thor found out about her fight...?

[Because they liked each other!] comes the punchline, just a second or two late.

{Can you just forget about the previous message}

[No way. It sounds interesting. Tell me about it.]

* * *

She's in England, helping Touma and his pint-sized roommate out with something involving fire, runes, a chainsmoker who insists he's the same age as her. There had been fights, there had been a large multinational corporation she'd had to hack into (it had been rather fun, actually), and there had been Touma stumbling headfirst into three separate women's chests and them trying to kill and/or join his cause. Mikoto is exhausted.

She turns to her phone for something a little less exhausting, a little more fun.

{What do you call a month of rain?} she sends to Thor.

[What?] comes the reply, almost immediately, and she smiles softly at the quickness of it.

{England,} she sends, and her mind is full of the gray-misty dampness of these western islands as she sends the text message.

Thor sends back a barrage of laughing emoticons.

* * *

Slowly, gradually, their text-based conversations broaden in depth and range. They tell each other about their days, they discuss pop culture (Mikoto surprised about how well-versed he is in that, finding him a great bridge to the music and games and movies dominating the world outside Academy City), and they talk about electricity, and lightning, and storms.

There's a subtle and unspoken agreement not to talk about or refer to their respective 'sides' - and she can tell, already, that he doesn't seem ideologically bound to Magic, the same as she does not consider herself owned by Academy City.

She would defend it, of course - it's her home - but she doesn't feel bound to it. She is herself, not a member of Judgment or of Science or any such organization. She doesn't even really consider herself a member of the 'Kamijou Faction' - too much on the outside of what Touma goes through - although she does consider herself firmly _on_ Touma's side.

Thor is her...friend. She can decide her own friends.

* * *

{But OK, from what I remember, most of Europe uses 400V phase-to-phase, and 230V phase-to-neutral. So, 400V phase-to-phase TN, with variances TN-C/TN-S/TN-CS, 5-leader power system.}

[Right. And this means delivering high voltage to street transformers and stepping it down, and hundreds of meters with low-voltage cabling.]

{Copper?}

[Right.]

{But it's so expensive! Why not alu-fort-cables? Cheaper and they conduct as well as copper.}

[Look, princess, only Academy City has the technology to manufacture capacity-fortified aluminum in the required quantities.]

It's three in the morning before Mikoto remembers to go to sleep. She dozes off in her classes but feels she learns more from her discussions with Thor anyway.

* * *

Mikoto suggests they start using an online messaging app, so they can send images and videos not easily supported by their native text apps. The first thing she sends is a wiring schematic for the AAA she's reconfiguring for her own use, expecting (and receiving) Thor's comments as insightful, useful, and rather amusing.

The second thing she sends is a meme of a lightning bolt striking a tree, the bolt huge and starkly white against a purple sky. "Fuck this tree in particular!" proclaim big letters.

* * *

[Hey. I saw some of your fight with those idiots from the Offshoot Church.]

{Is that what they're called? All I know is they were making a ruckus in MY city. Well, what'd you think?}

[ ○ Rekt . ○ Not Rekt . ● Tyrannosaurus Rekt ]

Mikoto grins, and feels proud of herself. It distracts from still-healing injuries.

(In Europe, certain branches of the Offshoot Church are leveled to the ground, their wooden timbers blackened by lightning.)

* * *

Mikoto finally gets a phone to replace her beloved, but out-dated, Gekota-phone. She needs a larger screen and better processors to cope with all the things she sends and receives from Thor.

Kuroko is ecstatic, thinking the new, sleek, touchscreen phone is a sign her adored Oneesama is outgrowing childish things. She is then disappointed by the bright green Gekota sticker Mikoto immediately plasters on its back.

* * *

[Miko-chan, I need to tell you something about your Sisters in Helsinki. They're being targeted.]

[Attachment: video01 . mpg ]

{Thank you, Thor. I owe you one.}

She's on the next plane to Helsinki, glaring at the video she's been sent, two men stalking one of her Sisters.

* * *

 **AN:** I don't actually know that much about where Thor fits in the Raildex story and how he and Misaka have interacted, as I am mostly a Railgun fan, but the concept of these two awesome lightning-users getting along swimmingly is great fun for me. I didn't even know about Thor until **61wisampa** and her fic, _"What Causes A Spark"_ , so blame her for this.


	2. everything that kills me

_everything that kills me  
makes me feel alive_

* * *

When Mikoto looks back, she remembers her time in Helsinki like a gradient, an upward-trending arch of colors and feelings. It starts in the greys, worry and fear and Thor's video-clip, gray-white airplane in gray-rain sky, shading into reds of anger and rage and displacing the weaker emotions when she is on the ground and able to investigate and _do_ things. It drives her as she checks in on her Sisters, a red ember glowing in the back of her mind even as she laughs and smiles with them once she discovers they are safe. (But having noticed their tails, and having prudently withdrawn into the relative safety of the Academy City facilities. Mikoto rages for the curtailment of their freedom as she would have - more than she would have - for her own, because freedom for her Sisters was a precious gift that they were only just now learning.)

And then the reds cool into the blues of purpose and thought, as Mikoto puts her formidable mind to work. She begins with her Sisters and their scientist-caretakers, talking and observing, taking what she learns from them and using it as catalysts for further investigation. She casts through the computer networks, flitting through them with the careless native ease of a fish in this electronic sea, sifting through the data for the bright little kernels of information that she needs.

Brighter blues, then, for the memories as she takes to the streets, the night lit up by her lightning as she searches and destroys. The purpose and anger subsumed into the white-hot glory of triumph, as she finds her enemies' stronghold, and assaults it, and takes everything they throw at her, and realizes that whatever they throw at her is _not enough._

By the end, she's standing in the cratered remains of a building. Iron girders and slabs of concrete litter the landscape, as well as the remnants of several battle-mechs. So-called electrical shielding had only held so far. There are no humans there - they'd long-since fled. The last ones, the ones she really blames for her Sisters' danger, are in the hospital now, magnet-floated in on stretchers made of salvaged metal.

She's alone here - well, alone except for a certain cold-lightning boy who she can feel tickling at the edge of her electromaster senses.

She's high on adrenaline, high on battle-rush. She's grinning and grinning. Her Sisters are safe. The threat is gone. The message is sent.

And Thor had stood back and let it happen. She could feel him, at the periphery of her range, all throughout the final battle. He had stood back and watched - he had trusted her to handle what was coming.

He had let her have all the fun.

But he had waited, in case she needed him.

Mikoto likes him more in that moment than she ever had before.

So she looks in his direction. She smiles. The area around her is a lightning-blasted wasteland. Even if she went all out it couldn't get any more destroyed than it already was. Her minor injuries are nothing, and she can move as easy as ever. Energy is rampaging through her veins, filling her up, sparking into empty air as overflow.

So, of course, the first thing she says to him in person, after all their phone-chatting, is: "Hey Thor. Wanna fight?"

* * *

Thor beats her, of course. Thor is faster and stronger. His lightning-arcs can cut her, if with less effect than with other non-electrically-aligned people, while her electrical attacks have no effect on him. The very world _warps_ around him, changing in ways that facilitate his victory.

It's euphoric.

He's a war-god on earth, a foe as relentless as tides and as terrible as thunder. She dances with death when she fights with him. A little less speed, a little less power in her shielding, and she could die. She could really die. Thor's hitting hard enough to kill. She evades crippling/fatal strikes by hair's-breadth gaps. Her mind is kicked into redline overdrive, seeing clearer, reacting faster, all just to stay in the game.

The adrenaline is _incredible_.

She dances with death. And in this dancing with death she exults in life, in her own bright, young strength, her own pure purpose, in the things she sees and hears and tastes. There is nothing but the battle, calling down thunderbolts and calling up black iron, expressing her defiance of death in movement and lightning.

She doesn't have to hold herself back with this foe. She can't hold back with this foe. She can throw everything she has at him and he won't die. But he doesn't really want her to die, either. He's hitting hard enough to kill, but he's happy when she dodges, when she hits back. All he wants, all she wants, is a good fight. He's enjoying himself. And so is she.

He's safe, and he's dangerous. He's dead-serious, and he's enjoying this. He's the best of both worlds, and Misaka is having _so much fun._

* * *

"Th-that was fun..."

"Yeah...yeah, it was."

"...I think I'm gonna pass out. Can you drop me off at my Sisters' place?"

* * *

 **Extra: A Certain Conversation**

"So _that's_ why the Railgun has no known organizational ties."

"Judgement..."

"Judgement was a blind, it was obvious even before this. Maybe they were in on it, maybe they weren't. But she's clearly a solo operator - probably for the General Superintendent himself. I wonder if she's actually the Third, or if they bumped her status down to keep attention off her?"

"I've seen the files on the Accelerator and Dark Matter, they are more combat-capable..."

"I wonder. Look at what she's done - better yet, look at what she _hasn't_ done."

"What?"

"First, she got to Helsinki in the first place. And she was in Russia, and in Liberty City in the States. England, too, recently, I hear. The Board not only trusts her outside Academy City, they actually send her out."

"That's a good point."

"Secondly, what's the one thing she hasn't done in Helsinki?"

"...had some salmiakki?"

"No. She hasn't called Academy City - or anyone - for further orders, or to report in. She has command authority. She had the power to call the shots on this mission, and she _did so._ She also has the power to back up all those decisions and complete the mission on her own."

"You're right..."

"The Railgun is the General Superintendent's personal operative, and that's why she takes such pains to appear like a normal middle-schooler who only wants to play in arcades and buy Gekota merchandise. Who is honestly that obssessed about cartoon frogs at that age? She's playing a part, and they're lapping it up! And obviously it's because she's so useful that they've been trying to clone her! Why not clone the First or Second? Because they're BATSHIT INSANE. But the Railgun is, at fourteen years old, a skilled operative trusted on solo international-scope missions AND able to maintain a cover identity as a normal middle-schooler despite being known as a Level 5!"

"It all makes sense now!"

"I know!"

They give each other high-fives.

* * *

 **AN** : Thanks for the reviews, guys! I really love listening to your ideas and suggestions of where I can take this next, so please feel free to chime in when you can. :D

My view of Misaka is someone who loves to test her limits and is always striving to be stronger, but buries it deep underneath a veneer of socially-acceptable behavior. Her desire to be seen as 'normal' clashes with the fact of her power as a Level 5. That's why she roams around the city and takes joy in beating up on gangs who try to assault her, because now she has a justified reason to thrash them.

I think she's always subconsciously holding back. During the Level Upper arc Kiyama comments on how Misaka wasn't showing her full power until the AIM Burst made it necessary. She goes all sparky and tempermental but she doesn't do any huge damage and we know she can. And in a modern world her electrical powers can do lots of damage.

That's why she was so stoked to meet Touma, and why she kept chasing him for a fight, at the beginning - because she could go all-out against him. Even when she thought fighting him could possibly remove all her powers she had to try.

Now, having thought that, I wondered - how would she react to another boy who she could go all-out against, without worrying he was killing her Sisters or something?


	3. hey soul sister

_i want the world to see you'll be with me  
hey soul sister_

* * *

Helsinki has three Sisters staying at the Academy City facilities. Their serial numbers are 10101 (who is secretly proud of her binary number), 12153, and 13879.

The Original shows up and wants to talk to them. They are thrilled. (The entire MISAKA Network seethes with jealousy.)

The Original explains that she had flown to Helsinki because she was worried about them. They are touched. (The Network's jealousy deepens.)

Then the Original disappears and there is a very intense localized thunderstorm in the city. They are quietly terrified. (The whole Network twists in the shared-memory flashbacks to the Level 6 experiments. In Academy City, Last Order flinches from a confused Accelerator. Worst flees his vicinity outright.)

The storm ends. The Original appears in front of the facilities, beat up and unconscious. They are worried.

* * *

"It is now 0300 hours. According to our prepared schedule, it is now my turn to watch over Oneesama, MISAKA-12153 points out."

"While that is true, it does not mean I must vacate the room. I am fully within my rights to remain here, MISAKA-10101 insists with firmness in her voice."

"That would be a clearly unbalanced situation. 10101 got to stay in the room alone with Oneesama for four hours, taking every bit of time allocated in the schedule, and I deserve the same opportunity, argues MISAKA-12153, making an excellent point."

"Nothing prevented 12153 from coming during my Oneesama-watch shift, says MISAKA-10010, implying that her relative lack of time with Oneesama is 12153's own fault."

"10101 is forgetting we arranged this schedule precisely so that our duties in this facility are still covered, MISAKA-12153 points out acidly."

"It is not my fault if 12153 has decided that our gravely-injured Oneesama, who was gravely injured for our sake, is of less importance than our chores, and has not decided - like others have - to structure her priorities in such a way that our daily duties come second to her, MISAKA-10101 proclaims righteously."

"That is just a fancy way of saying that 10101 is skipping out on her duty rotation to intrude in my scheduled Oneesama time, protests MISAKA-12153 with much indignation."

"Hee. Hee. Hee. Neither 12153 nor 10101 has noticed that I have 'one-upped' them by crawling into Oneesama's bed to cuddle with her, chortles MISAKA-13879 quietly."

* * *

Mikoto awakes to arms full of cuddly clone-sister and two outraged clone-sisters attempting to pull the lucky one away. 13879 clings tighter and Mikoto winces slightly at the pressure on cracked ribs.

"You are hurting Oneesama, accuses MISAKA-12153."

"No, no, it's fine!" Mikoto mumbles, drowsily enjoying the feeling of warm human contact without having to worry about it progressing to sexual assault. She feels toasty-warm and sleepy and content. Even the pressure-pain dims and fades behind her sleep-hazed feeling of well-being. There is a quiet hum and she opens one eye to see tiny blue cracklings of electricity dancing in her sister's bangs. They stretch outwards, arching fluidly like fountain-jets, and disappear into Mikoto.

"Feels nice," she yawns, snuggling back into a quietly ecstatic 13879. Her body enjoys the electricity like sun-hot skin would enjoy a light mist, drinking in the relatively light electricity like water.

"No fair, say MISAKA-12153 and MISAKA-10101 in unison," say the other two clones in deadpan stereo.

Mikoto yawns again and shifts herself in silent invitation. The other two Sisters are quick to take it. By the time the scientists check up on them, all four Misakas are curled up together in the bed like puppies, all three Sisters periodically sparking with electricity that their Original absorbs happily.

Hardened, logical-minded Academy City scientists cannot help but squee.

* * *

 _Oneesama will be staying over in Helsinki for an additional three days in order to facilitate her healing. During this time-period, she will be spending time with MISAKA-10101, MISAKA-12153, and MISAKA-13879, having indicated it is a high priority in her hierarchy of tasks/schedule._

The Network ripples as this update is delivered from the Helsinki sisters. Multiple identical inputs come in at the same time from all around the globe: _"Not fair!"_

* * *

 **Extra: Another Certain Conversation**

"Hey, bratling. What are you looking at?"

"Oneesama killed a building for us! We are very touched and pleased. So we asked the Sisters in Helsinki to take pictures! And video! So we have a material memory of it, not just the memory they uploaded to the Network, chirps Last Order happily."

"...you mean Third-rate?"

"Oneesama is oneesama, explains Last Order helpfully."

"Yeah, okay, whatever, just - holy fuck. Did she do that?"

"Yes, she did it for us! clarifies Last Order with a joyful tone of voice."

"...huh. Still a fucking walkover, but at least she can bring the hurt. To weaklings. Bet I could have done better."

* * *

 **AN:** The Sisters hijacked this one, for some reason.

Edit: As pointed out by **arches-biggest-fan** , 10010 would have been dead, so I replaced her serial number with 10101


End file.
